Conceptualism

Conceptualism grew out of the 1960s and took Minimalism to its final stage. Conceptualism is based on the notion that art can be just an idea and not necessarily a physical piece of art. The idea was in fact more important than creating physical artwork, although Conceptualist artists always created a physical work, usually a photograph or a set of directions. It is considered to be a major turning point in art because it opened the scope of art to be anything you could think of or do, from an idea to the written or published word, to performance right up to the modern ‘installation’. In this way it challenged almost all conventional thought on the subject of art. Although Conceptualism was and is a controversial movement, there can be no doubt that it has caused both an evolution and a revolution in our understanding of what constitutes art in the 21st Century.